Two Men’s first division coaches in Finland were first penalised with a one-year suspension due to match fixing. The consequences were set by the Finnish Floorball Federation’s Competition and Disciplinary group. The Appeal Committee has now changed the consequences.
Two head coaches were penalised with a one-year suspension due to the activities in the Finnish Men’s first division match between O2-Jyväskylä and ÅIF in Jyväskylä 18th of February. It was suspected that the two head coaches decided the end result of the match two minutes before the match ended. At that time the score was even 5-5. No goals were seen during the last minutes nor on the overtime. In the end ÅIF won the match 6-5 on penalty shots.
Due to the suspicions that were brought forward in the reportage of the match, the Finnish Floorball Federation’s Competition and Disciplinary group started to investigate the case. In addition to the one-year suspension of the head coaches, both teams lost one point. The original news can be found here.
The Appeal Committee of the Finnish Floorball Federation has changed the consequences of the case. The head coach of ÅIF, Sebastian Freudenthal will be suspended until the end of November 2018 and the head coach of O2-Jyväskylä, Ilkka Peltonen will be suspended until the end of September 2018 instead of the one-year suspensions. Both teams will also get the lost points back. The Appeal Committee was in the opinion that the head coaches had agreed that the regular playing time should end even. However, the Appeal Committee was in the opinion that the article 12 of the competition rules when it comes to match fixing couldn’t be extended to apply to the regular playing time as well. Thus, the article 12 of the competition rules couldn’t be applied to the case.
Instead the Appeal Committee was in the opinion that both parties broke the article 62’s article 3 of the competition rules and the head coaches can be penalised for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Freudenthal was seen as the initiative party which was taken into consideration in the suspension.
As the Appeal Committee returns the points, ÅIF will still remain 10th in the first division, but O2-Jyväskylä’s placement will improve. Due to this, O2-Jyväskylä will avoid play-outs and EräViikingit Akatemia will face play-outs instead of them. EräViikingit Akateam has already been warned beforehand that the placements might change.
